By Terence Dooley
Liverpool’s Paul Smith will take a break before making his next move following Saturday’s decision defeat to WBO 168lb titlist Arthur Abraham in Berlin. “Smigga” fell short by scores of 116-112, 117-111 and 117-111 at the O2 World Arena and accepted that he had lost to the better man on the night.
The 32-year-old believes that the brace of battles with a world-class title-holder has showed that he deserved his much-maligned first crack at the belt and the WBO mandated rematch following the controversy over the wide scorecards when they met in September.
Smith falls to 35-5 (20); he acquitted himself well during the 24-rounds of action with Abraham, 42-4 (28), and revealed that he turned down a possible shot against the comebacking Andre Ward to secure his world title rematch.
“I am not going to make any rash decisions on my future, I don't like it when fighters do that,” said Smith when talking to Ron Lewis of The Times. “The last thing you want to do after a fight is fight again, win or lose. There are opportunities out there for me. I liked fighting in Germany and I wouldn't mind going back, but it has to be the right fight. Felix Sturm [the former WBA, IBF and WBO middleweight champion] is out there. Arthur will probably fight Robert Stieglitz next as his mandatory.
“Andre Ward was on the phone six months ago after the first Abraham fight and wanted to fight me, but I wanted to wait and get the rematch. I am not saying I am going to fight Ward now but there are fights out there.”
Smith will have to make a decision about his British title first; he beat Tony Dodson by sixth-round TKO to pick up the belt in June 2013 and has yet to defend it due to the two fights with Abraham. The BBBoC have ordered an all-Liverpool derby between Smith and Rocky Fielding, 19-0 (11), with purse bids due by Wednesday the 11th of March. The fight itself would have to take place by June, which means that the title may have been MIA for two years by the time it’s on the line again.
In the meantime, Smith is about to add a new addition to his family, so will put any decision on hold until the time is right.
The fight also underlined the fact that boxing is a ratings winner here in Europe with 4,000,000 viewers and a 15% audience share for Germany’s SAT1 network . The figures are heartening for the sport, with Golovkin and Murray’s fight on Channel 5, a free-to-air channel, still to come and the re-emergence of boxing on ITV this weekend boxing is in a good place TV-wise after a slow start to the year.
Please send news and views to @Terryboxing.
